Kintamani is the only active Volcano in Indonesia, its at a
3 hour drive from Seminyak.
The drive was through the rice fields and leads to hillside
in the central part of Bali. We stopped in one of the farm places for the world
reknown – KOPI LUWAK! We saw the civets who are fed coffee beans and their
digestive tract processes the coffee with a special enzymes in their stomach.
It lends a delicate aroma to the coffee.
An employee from the farm gave us a tour of the farm and
showed us the process of making the coffee. They sampled us almost 17 flavor of
tea and Coffee, each splendid in its own unique manner. KOPI LUWAK was good as a coffee, but i wasnt able to appreciate the reasons for it mega popularity. I leave it for the connoisuers ! I preferred other flavors like the Cinnamon and Ginseng Coffee. They also gave a taste of the Local rice Arak - It had a tangy sweet taste! We bought a few flavors
and left for the Volcano.
Pretending to be art connoisseurs, we stopped a place
selling paintings. They are nice and pretty, but mostly made to con the tourists.
Beware of paying any hefty price for the paintings. I took a particular liking
to a Budha, which they quoted $ 450 and said that they would come down to $300,
because they liked me!
Fortunately for me, I moved out and later found exactly
similar copies of that painting being sold I Ubud for $20 upwards!! If you want
a piece of art, shell out some money, but buy it from a reputed gallery which
is licensed by the govt of Indonesia.
The air became cooler as we climbed to the Kintamani. The
peak can be reached after a trek of over 2 hours, but being lazy, we just chose
to see it from distance.
There are a few nice restaurants lined up on the hillside
with a view of the entire valley and Kintamani. You can sit around for a while
and enjoy the panorama. There are some hotels up there and you can stay for a
night if it you fancy the trek.
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